School News

Local Twirlers’ efforts crowned with success

March 28, 2012 Heather Chin
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photos by Heather J. Chin
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The scene inside the gymnasium at Our Lady of Perpetual Help (OLPH) Elementary School at 9 a.m. on Saturday, March 24, was a swirl of pastel leotards and tutus, princess outfits, and sparkly dresses and hair ties, as well as a lot of shiny batons flying up in the air. As the 35th Annual Baton Twirling Contest kicked off, everyone was ready to go.

Among the 10 teams from around Queens, Staten Island, the Bronx and even Pennsylvania, were Brooklyn’s own OLPH Twirlers, an award-winning team of 15 girls aged three through 14. Having won awards in the past, the girls and their parents were confident that the judges would see and reward the fruits of their hard work – rehearsals three times a week in the weeks leading up to the competition – yet again.

“People don’t realize, it’s a sport. It’s really athletic and it takes a lot of discipline and practice,” said mom Lisa Silva, whose 10-year-old daughter Isabella has been a twirler for two years. “Just learning how to toss and turn… A lot of the [older] girls do more advanced tricks, too.”

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“Normally we meet every Tuesday, but before the competition, it’s three times a week, three to four hours a day, and the girls love it. They don’t want to leave,” said Donna Lubrano, who signed up daughter Angelia, seven, after seeing photos of her aunt during her “big time twirler” days and then finding OLPH Twirlers performing during the Sunset Park BID’s Fifth Avenue Festival.

For the OLPH Twirler family, though – and for many in the twirling community present in the gym this year – twirling is fun and has so many more rewards than a shiny trophy.

“It teaches teamwork, sportsmanship, how to learn from each other and support each other,” said Silva. Christina Santos marveled at the change she’s seen her daughters, Thalia, 10, and Abriel, four. “They come in and are so clumsy, and they just blossom by the time competition comes around,” she said.

Lubrano chimed in, “They’re all ages, too. The big girls take care of the little girls.”

Several of those bigger girls, such as Thalia Santiago, 12, and Ariana Zamot, 14, have transitioned from competitive twirler to volunteer assistants and, like 16-year-old Hannah Nelson, coaches-in-training.

The hard work paid off yet again. Their performance as a large group – the OLPH Shooting Stars – netted them first place in that category, while the 10 to 14 years old group of OLPH Glittering Stars also snagged a first-place trophy.

The competition was sanctioned by the New York Twirling Organization, co-founded in 2003 by OLPH Twirlers coach Cecilia Fedyn. The OLPH Twirlers continue the tradition of the local Cadet Corps started by Bay Ridge native Dorothy Orlowski, 97, who watched the next generation of young leaders perform with pride.


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